Day 75: Me and my book(s)

Whenever I read a book that's really good, I get really excited about writing. I'll barely finish a page without having a new idea for a story I'm working on. I stop, quickly scribble it down and carry on reading.

Sometimes (if it's really good) it gives me ideas for old stories I've already 'finished' (a story is never really finished in my opinion, you just chose to stop writing/tweeking/editing it) I want to add an extra chapter, a whole new ending, another character...

Reading makes writing exciting!

Of course, it can have the opposite affect on me too. If I think a book's rubbish, I'll lose all passion for writing. Now the question is, should you see it through to the end, or just chuck it?

I'm a fan of writing in books. Some people are totaly against it, but it helps me remember where the good bits are. The book I'm reading at the moment is a hard back, so I've decided to only write in pencil. If it's a charity shop jobby, then pens fine (a little fact I thought you needed to know!). Do you write in books?

I'm reading My name is Mina at the moment by David Almond. Have you ever read Skellig? Well ,he wrote that too and I think they are both brilliant. He has inspired a lot of my writing with his subtle tone and moving characters. It looks like he's going to influence a lot more stories yet to be written. My name is Mina is FULL of creativity, imagination and wonder (I think these are the right words). This is not a book review, but I DO encourage you to read it if you can. It looks like this:

In September, I am going to a talk by David Almond (as part of the Bath Kid's Lit Fest) and I'm SOOO excited! In case you haven't guessed already, you can expect a quote or two from Mina in the coming weeks. After all, it is my inspirational blog, so I feel it only appropriate to include what inspires me to be creative too!

Watch this space...

p.s. check out this review if you're interested.

Day 74: Gutiar hero?

First off, I want to apologise you all you musicians out there who follow my blog. I realised today that I haven't given you much creative inspiration lately, so this one is for you.

Luckily for the rest of you, it involves this guy who has heeps of creativity to feed a lot of creative minds.

He's called The Mystery Guitar man and he is a video blogger. Follow this link to see his ten latest videos and loads more (I guess it depends how much time you have!). They are all musical and very creative. He must use complicated computer stuff 'cause they're all super clever! It may be, of course, that I am just rubbish with anything electric! What's really cool is he lets you see a bit about how he made his videos.

Ok, because I am so nice, I have put one of my favourite ones here for you. Think of it as a sneak peek:



Anyway, I really think you should give this fellow (more technically advanced) blogger a go.

Be inspired all who call themselves creative!

Day 73: Flowers

For the past couple of weeks I have been surrounded by wedding arrangements. No, not my own, my sister's. She gets married next year and is up to her eyeballs in dresses, table decorations, bouquets and goodness knows what else.

The other day we went to a cute little flower shop in my hometown to find out about bouquets. I went thinking it was just choosing the flowers and maybe a couple of leaves, but it turns out there are millions of options. Do you want ribbons? What flowers do you want? What colours? Oh, those flowers aren't available at that time of the year. Why not add gems, glitter, feathers...

I thought they were going to ask us if we wanted any caterpillars on it next!

All of this got me thinking about flowers. I wish I could say I knew all their names and smells and where they came from, but the honest truth is, I know very little about them. Flowers in themselves are pretty creative, but when you think about all the things you can do with them, the mind boggles. You can make daisy chains, potpourri, head garments, decorations, bouquets or just use the petals...

The also have so much meaning too, sympathy, romance, spring time...there's a flower for every occasion.

What could you do with flowers? Could they feature in your creative work? Is it something new you could explore?

I like to ponder over these kind of things from time to time. Why don't you join me...

Day 72: Scrabble

Initially, this game does not appear all that inspiring, especially creativity. But, let's just look back over this blog for a sec. Nature, charity shops, rubbish...all of these things on the surface don't appear that creative, but I've managed to produce a creative slant on them all, so here goes...

Yesterday, I was playing Scrabble. When the box came out I thought, 'man, I really don't want to play this. I'm too tired (from all the food and the lack of sleep) and I just can't be bothered.' Somehow I managed to win (yay), but this isn't about me winning. This is about Scrabble!

You know when you play Scrabble, you get those reeeeeally long breaks were another player is desperately trying to find somewhere to put their 'Q' or whatever? Well, there were a lot of them in my game, so naturally my mind wondered into the potential creative qualities of Scrabble.

So, here's the challenge for today; get hold of a Scrabble game and take out 7 letters (no peeking).

Now, that's what you got. What are you going to do with it? Do they spell anything of interest? How does it inspire you? The challenge is, to do something with it.

Use the words, use the letters, use the tiles. Be as imaginative as you like, but whatever you do, be creative.

Got no scrabble tiles? Well, here's some I prepared earlier...

A N D U E M S

Write, sing, dance, draw, paint, make, bake, sew, film...Create.

Day 71: Unique creations?

Technically, I've already spoken about the lions in Bath (check out day 25 if you didn't read it) but today's entry is a little different (so it's allowed!).

Just in case you don't know, for the past couple of months, Bath has been over run with lots of brightly decorated lion sculptors, 100 to be exact, to raise money for local charities. Each lion is painted by a different artist and sponsored by a different organisation (like a shop or the library).

Today, I was walking around Bath and it struck me how every single lion is completely different, but equally imaginative. There is one covered in scalpel knife heads to form it's mane. Another is covered with Mosaic tiles. Another, in material like a collage. One even in scrabble tiles!

Creativity really is amazing and what's even better is how every person has something different to give. All of these lions started the same, white. But each of these artists has transformed them into something unique.

Did you ever get given the task at primary school of decorating boiled eggs for Easter? Do you remember how every one looked different by the end. Well it's the same with these lions. That's the great thing about creativity. Each of us has something new to share.

What can you bring to the world? What are your ideas and skills? Where will your imaginations take you? Anyone can decorate a white lion sculptor, but no one can do it exactly like YOU.

Let it go and see where it takes you...

Day 70: Fiesta

Yesterday, I spent the day with my family at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. It was great. First, we watch the Red Arrows do an impressive display. They tore through the sky in different formations. It seriously looked like they were held together with invisible string, they were so slick!

Then they broke their formation and went off in different directions. Very impressive. If you haven't seen a Red Arrows display, Go! It's excellent.

Here's my first challenge of the day. If you are into dance or choreography, then check out these clips of the Red Arrows. Push your boundaries and try and come up with your own routine for the Red Arrows. They have a dance all of their own. What would you have them do? Maybe you could send off your ideas to them!

After we'd seen the Red Arrows, we made our way to where all the hot air balloons were going to take off (it was a pretty long walk!) We sat down on the grass and had a little picnic. Eventually over 50 hot air balloons floated into the fading sky, all of them different colours and shapes. There was one in the shape of a dragon! It was amazing.

My second challenge is for all you designers. What would YOU put on a hot air balloon? What shapes and colours? Would you have a picture or just patterns?

Today you chose! Use what you've got and make it creative!

Day 69: Networking

Networking? What's networking?

You know they saying, 'it's not what you know, but who you know'? Well, that's networking!

If you're a creative person and you take yourself seriously as one, then you need to know about networking. Everyone who is creative as part of their job speaks to each other and makes contacts. Then they all help each other out.

I'll give you an example of my own networking. I went to a children's event as part of the Bath Literature Festival earlier in the year. Frank Cottrell Boyce (who wrote Millions and Cosmic) was speaking and he was really good to listen to and learn from. At the end of the event, I was cuing up to get my book signed by him and I ended up chatting to this guy called Karl. Turns out he is one of the managers of the event, so I gave him my card (which has my name and contact numbers on it) and now, because I made that contact, I am volunteering with the next festival.

I know what you're thinking, 'I'm not doing creativity for a job, so why do I need to network?' What do you do? Dance, craft, animation, blogging, art? If your into dance, do you go to dance shows and events? If you're a blogger, do you follow other blogs? The great thing about being young, is that you've got everything ahead of you! Learn from people. That's what I'm doing. That's why I'm volunteering, to learn from those who know more than me.

So, be brave and talk to that person at the event. Give them your email address or ask for theirs.

If you liked some of the recycled craft from yesterday's blog, then get in touch with them. Check out their websites and ask them how they started...

There is so many ways you can network and anyone can do it. If you're creative, then be inspired to make things happen for you.

Oh, here's another saying, 'if you don't ask, then you don't get.' True, true, true!

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and make things happen!